Editorial
Risky business A time of repentance followed by a time of joy. A season of darkness followed by a season of light. Thus Christians, in the shortest days and darkest season of the year, await...
...Father Dulles is right in saying that "any proposal for dialogue within the church must be very carefully formulated"-as we believe Cardinal Bernardin's was...
...In both cases, fear is the lens that magnifies the danger...
...Still, we have based our proposals on the Word of God and the Spirit of the Gospel" (Gaudium et spes, 91...
...will have to be pursued further and amplified because it often deals with matters which are subject to continual development...
...let the Gentile be emboldened, for he is called to life...
...But no dialogue, however carefully formulated, is without risk...
...we have a magisterium, and the teachings of popes and bishops, of holy women and men...
...and heaven and nature sing...
...The bishops at Vatican II said: "This conciliar program...
...and heaven, and heaven and nature sing...
...Christians never have...
...Still, mistakes are made...
...Thus Isaiah.shone...
...Thus Isaac Watts and George Frederic Handel...
...For example: one of the church's outstanding theologians, Avery Dulles, S.J., spoke out recently on the dangers of dialogue, and cited, in particular, "Called to Be Catholic," the statement accompanying Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's Catholic Common Ground Initiative...
...We remember and liken (see, Ellen Gaynor, page 24...
...Mistakes and false steps, or fears of such, are never cause to cease writing, speaking, remembering, explaining, thinking, comparing, contrasting, humming, imagining, and joining with others in conversation and dialogue...
...And if there is a weakness among supporters of dialogue, it is not a susceptibility to relativism, but rather their reluctance-a quality they share with the opponents of dialogue-to risk changing their minds...
...At times, we talk too much and listen too little...
...As W.H...
...Father Dulles said he had no real objection to the statement itself, but only to what it might be "understood as implying in the curTHE NEXT ISSUE OF COMMONWEAL WILL BE DATED JANUARY 17, 1997...
...More important, the logic that sees the threat of "relativism" in Cardinal Bernardin's appeal for dialogue because of "the current atmosphere" is exactly the logic of secular critics who see the threat of "absolutism" in statements of John Paul II because his assertions might reinforce the authoritarian impulses of religious fundamentalists...
...No doubt they have...
...So too, the human mind devises cogent explanations: "Nobody is an outsider to this happiness...
...For too many, dialogue means an opportunity to air their positions, not an invitation to rethink them...
...Thus Christians, in the shortest days and darkest season of the year, await without fear of disappointment the coming of the Lord who has already come...
...Jesus left the Christian community in the hands of frightened and uncertain disciples...
...Advent prayers, hymns, readings, sermons remind us of the Incarnation and anticipate once again the Child's presence among us...
...Let the saint rejoice, for he hastens to his crown...
...We do not fall silent...
...HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR rent atmosphere...
...We Christians compare and contrast (see, Sidney Callahan, page 11...
...Quite the contrary, error has often been the impetus for greater clarification and deeper understanding...
...The coun cil fathers saw the church as "a sign of the spirit of brotherhood which renders possible sincere dialogue and strengthens it" (Gaudium et spes, 92...
...We are not sure what seasonal metaphors Christians of the Southern Hemisphere have crafted to express the theology of hope and fulfillment in a season of sunlight and endless day...
...The cause for joy is common to all, for as our Lord found nobody free from guilt when he came to bring an end to death and to sin, so he came with redemption for all...
...For Jesus' words, his saving acts, the mysteries of faith, have always spurred the human imagination to fitting analogies: "And heaven and nature sing...
...Fears about the distorting effects of "the current atmosphere" should not be dismissed out of hand...
...That atmosphere, he went on, is one in which some theologians (he named John Hick and Paul Kittner) argue that dialogue between religions requires the abandonment of Christianity's claims to a unique and fuller truth, and in which some liberal political philosophers argue that public dialogue in a pluralist society requires relegating to the private sphere all substantial claims about the good...
...But truly our talk is a risky business...
...let the sinner be filled with joy, for pardon is offered him...
...Auden has it: Remembering the stable where for once in our lives Everything became a You and nothing was an It...
...Thus Leo the Great...
...For "upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone...
...The Christian communities that followed have given us further traditions, prayers, liturgies, spiritual riches, and philosophical systems...
...times of prayer and silence...
...Wrong turns are taken...
...So in the darkest days of the year, let us talk...
...If God's hand were stayed by fear of misunderstanding, there would have been no Bethlehem...
...But why choose these particular theologians (also named by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in a recent speech, Origins, October 31,1996), or these particular philosophers (John Rawls, Richard Rorty) as bellwethers when strong countercurrents are at work in both their fields...
...They left behind Gospels and Epistles...
...And truth to tell, there are times when the Catholic church seems to suffer more from the fear of error than from error itself...
...But even for these lapses, our tradition has given us remedies: Advent and Lent, seasons of retreat, repentance, reconciliation...
...Thus Isaiah...
...Under the power and tutelage of the Holy Spirit, the first Christian communities began to speak and write of what Jesus said and did...
...We mistake the metaphor for the truth...
Vol. 123 • December 1996 • No. 22
